Fastest way to reinstal windows with some programs ?

[peter24345]

Hello
What is the fastest way to restore/reinstall a basically clean windows but with all the drivers, windows updates and maybe some programs, so If I was to reinstall, format windows I wouldn't have to do everything from scratch ( Like installing windows from disc, installing all updates, drivers etc. as it takes waaaay too long ) I think i would have to create a system image for that but i dont really know how to.

If what i said makes sense to you what is the best, easy to use program to create that sort of image of windows ?

I know that you can create that sort of backup directly from windows but it requires you to have a secondary hard drive or usb from the start of doing it, what i was thinking about doing is getting some sort of program to create an image that I can then put on my desktop and configurate it later onto a usb drive or something like that and then do the reinstall when i need to.

This is the thing i was going to do ages ago but i never knew how to do it

Hope what I said makes sense

I have windows 8.1

Answers will be welcome
Thanks

 

[crinkleshoes]

Symantec Ghost is what I use - but it's expensive.

You can even image multiple computers from a network source simultaneously if you want to.



I doubt you'll need the network side of things... here's a free one you can launch from USB/CD:

http://clonezilla.org/

http://www.fogproject.org/


There are others available too - but those two are free and they work well.

Paragon & Acronis are alternatives

 

[KIA]

Macrium Reflect.

 

[rolypolyman]

Paragon Backup and Recovery 2014 Free.